Why do pencils have erasers?

I grew up playing soccer. That was my sport. I think I tried them all, but I settled on soccer. I remember playing for my church’s youth softball team as a seventh grader and getting placed in right field. I knew that was where the not-so-good players are sent, and I accepted that role. Soccer was my thing; softball wasn’t.

But it seemed every game presented me with an internal conflict. My coach would wave from the dugout, telling me to come in a little. I would comply while he was looking, but as soon as he turned his head, farther into the outfield I would return.

I knew I was fast, and to me, it seemed more logical to play further back and run toward a ball hit to right field then to be embarrassed by a ball soaring over my head. I was fearful of making a mistake, and I was willing to be quietly disobedient to save myself the red cheeks.

Needless to say, I never got any better at softball, and I think it’s because I was too scared to try it full-heartedly, too fearful of making a blunder.

I’m not sure where my fear of failure comes from, but I recognize it clearly in many of today’s students.

When Shayna Greene asked her third grade class at Allen Elementary School the question, “Does anyone know why pencils have erasers?” her students gave her looks like she was crazy. The long silence was interrupted by a student’s response: “So we can chew on them?” Mrs. Greene laughed a little on the inside at the honest attempt at a correct answer.

“No,” she replied, “it’s so when you make a mistake, you can erase it and try again.”

Her question wasn’t a silly one. It was a poignant and purposeful one. She was seizing the opportunity to instill in the minds of her students the freedom and weightlessness that come from loosening the chains and lessening the burdens of making mistakes.

In Mrs. Greene’s third grade class, errors are encouraged, wrong answers are welcomed, and blunders are expected. Because according to Mrs. Greene, they are necessary in order for a child to reach his or her full potential. According to Mrs. Greene’s third grade classroom, children need to feel safe to take risks, and through cultivating a risk-taking environment, students develop into tenacious life-long learners.

The mistakes lead to correction, growth and progress. Her students become more confident within themselves, and the more confident kids we have riding our school buses, the better off our community will be.

Sometimes I wish I would have listened more to my softball coach. I wish I would’ve had a ball soar over my head, just to know what I would’ve done. I can’t predict it now, of course, but either one of two things would have happened.

One, I would have thrown my glove down and shamefully walked out of the ballpark. Or two, it would have been the seventh inning; my team up by one run; one man on second; batter up would be the winning run. The batter would’ve hit a lofty ball over my head. My lightning speed would have chased down the ball, and I would have hurled it all the way to home plate, getting out the tying runner. Then the catcher would have picked off the over-confident batter who rounded second without listening to his coach who had just witnessed me, a little lanky girl in right field, chase a ball down and hurl it all the way to home plate.

And we would’ve won the game, and I would’ve been lifted onto my team’s shoulders, and we would’ve gone to Dairy Queen to celebrate afterward. Then, next game, my coach would’ve taken me out of the not-so-good spot and placed me in the center field spot.

Yeah, that’s what can happen when a kid feels safe to take a risk. Thanks, Mrs. Greene for the reminder.

This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Why do pencils have erasers?."